1524: Florentine navigator Giovanni da Verrazano reaches what is now New York harbor. A bridge named for him will later make him as famous as Major Deegan.

1790: Benjamin Franklin dies, a hundred years before the Federal income tax. Today, when taxes are taken into account, his "A penny saved" is actually worth nearly two cents earned.

1837: John Pierpont Morgan is born at Hartford, Connecticut. In 1901 he'll form United States Steel, which will become the world's first billion-dollar business enterprise.

1852: Adrian Constantine "Cap" Anson is born at Marshalltown, Iowa. While playing for the Philadelphia Athletics in 1875, he and several other players will breach their contracts by talking about a future contract with a rival team in Chicago. The Chicago owner, to avoid discipline, will start a new circuit that he calls the "National League."